^{Author Mark Braff presents a copy of his book to his father, Milton Braff, 94. (Photo provided)}

‘Sons of Baseball’ Author To Speak

By WRILEY NELSON
COOPERSTOWN

Mark Braff, author of the newly-published “Sons of Baseball: Growing Up With a Major League Dad,” will visit the Baseball Hall of Fame for a Q&A and book signing at 1 p.m. on Father’s Day, June 18. The book features a foreword by Cal Ripken Jr. and interviews with the sons of 18 former major-league players, including Yogi Berra, Mariano Rivera, Roger Maris and Larry Doby. It explores the unique parenting experience of professional athletes through the eyes of their children.

“Sons of Baseball” examines the perks, pressures and frustrations of growing up just outside the spotlight. The stories run the gamut from humor to family drama, from the enlightening to the tragic. One major-league son stole the Cleveland groundskeeper’s cart and drove it into the upper deck of Municipal Stadium, only to have the battery die; another adult son revealed that his famous father has never accepted his sexuality. Braff adds his own meditations and draws out common threads across the interviews and biographies.

Braff was a highly-regarded public relations professional for more than 40 years before he retired in November 2020.
“I first had the idea for this book 20 or 25 years ago,” he recalled. “Long enough that I don’t remember specifically when it first came to me. I had been thinking about the link that baseball provides between parents and children, especially between fathers and sons for my generation, and suddenly wondered what it was like for children of major-league players.”

Braff was unable to write the book while working full time, but returned to it as a retirement project. He began setting up interviews in January 2021.

“What really struck me is that most of these guys grew up with the same issues as everybody else,” he said. “It was the same mix of family happiness, divorces, success, failure, comedy and tragedy as you’d get with other groups of people. What was different was the setting, especially if the kids were younger when their dads were playing. A lot of them grew up with major league stadiums as their personal playgrounds and with other famous players as extended family. They grew up with access that most people hardly dream of, and it was nothing to them.”

There were serious downsides to this kind of childhood, of course. Many of the fathers were away from home for half the year. Others found it difficult to make time for their children. Autograph seekers, journalists and other forms of unwanted attention made it difficult to live a normal life in public. Braff said he was particularly disturbed by Gil Hodges Jr.’s report that he learned of his father’s death over the radio. Many of the interview participants said that they felt undue pressure, attention and comparison in their own childhood athletic pursuits.

The book is a balanced, emotionally enlightening new perspective on Major League Baseball. The public is invited to attend Braff’s event at the Hall of Fame on Sunday, June 18. Copies will be available for purchase and signing.

“The book will make a great Father’s Day gift for procrastinators,” Braff said.

“Sons of Baseball” was published on May 10 and is available wherever books are sold. The publisher, Rowman & Littlefield, has also released e-book and audio editions.